254 Comments
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martin morrison's avatar

"Why the Hell is Musk getting a $29 billion raise?"

Why do dogs lick their balls? Because they want to and they can.

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Richard Van Atta's avatar

Ok …. That’s just too good… and cats lick their anus too!!

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Karla Von Huben's avatar

LOL! And then they climb into our laps and we have to sit there until their Feline Majesties agree to let us move.

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martin morrison's avatar

Really! I'm trying to keep things high-brow here!

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Karla Von Huben's avatar

You sound just like my cat. :D

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martin morrison's avatar

You sound just like my owner. Miaow.

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Sandra B's avatar

LOL

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Ezekiel Detroit's avatar

Elon, You are already crazy. So don’t mind if you get canned. You also are an asshole. No penalty for that except to your reputation.

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Donna Maurillo's avatar

As my Louisiana-born mother-in-law used to say, "Them that has, gits."

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Sandra B's avatar

Ezekiel, as an autistic person, I have to object. I also don't like what Musk is doing but don't call him names. Autistic people need to be comprehended, not labeled. It's hard to like us and it's hard to love us, but labels don't help the situation.

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martin morrison's avatar

Autism is not a licence to do what the fuck he wants. Given the abuse he dishes out so freely and casually, purely for his own infantile gratification, he deserves any abuse that comes back the way.

And there's a difference between autism and psychopathy. He's anything but disabled. He's about as enabled as they come.

Musk is already fully comprehended by most civilised people.

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Sandra B's avatar

Martin Morrison, I agree that Musk is monstrous; however, I felt pain in the way he was described, by people who generalize with no knowledge of autistic traits. Think we have no empathy? Too many misconceptions on the subject.

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martin morrison's avatar

Musk is a one-off. This discussion is about him and nobody else. He believes he's exempt from accepted norms and behaviours of society. Fair enough, but he can't then expect to enjoy the various protections the same society offers its less fortunate members.

He's a dangerous, malignant narcissist and, frankly, I find your defence of him both specious and depressing.

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Sandra B's avatar

Martin, I knew I was stretching things over Musk. You have not lived in an eight-decade autistic life. I want with all my heart for people to understand autism and break up the poison mythology about the subject. Even with his reckless disregard for others—well, that’s my point—I still feel the need to recognize his autism. I'm not asking for it to be an excuse for Musk's behavior. It's obvious how little our society understands autism. Please just let it go, or get some books on the subject. That's my current schtick. I obviously made a mistake with my choice of examples.

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martin morrison's avatar

You not only miss my point, you seem to be inferring views and prejudiced attitudes I do not hold, and then brow-beating me for holding them. I find this as insulting as it is exasperating.

Worse still, by granting Musk equivalence with people who genuinely suffer from autism, or any other healh condition, you demean them and their struggle.

I don't care what condition Musk or any of the other unrestrained sociopathic, malignant narcississts presently engaged in a ruthless corporate expropriation of your country and openly engaging in wholesale persecution of any minority they can identify may have. They clearly aren't 'suffering', and they have an army of sycophants, lickspittles and gophers to deal with any problems they may have.

Your closing sentence, however, is an understatement. It would have taken an effort for you to choose a worse pretext for posting what comes across as a rather indulgent whine.

I'm disabled with a multiplicity of chronic health conditions that have had a devastating effect on my 63 years, and they're not improving. I won't see an 8th decade. I don't lay my wares out here, and nor should you or anyone. This is neither the time nor place for the ME ME ME ME ME crap that is largely responsible for the mess we're ALL in.

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martin morrison's avatar

I don't see any reference to autism in Ezekiel's post.

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Ezekiel Detroit's avatar

I don’t really know if he is on the spectrum. If he is, you ought to know it is no excuse for being an asshole.

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Ed Shook's avatar

He’s copying trump bleeding the country of everything he can get. Its not complicated

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Ed Shook's avatar

Too many innocent minds in this country. The richest man in the world by far wants more money. Think about that mindset. He can’t spend anywhere near what he has accumulated. It’s pure acting out an addiction. He’s also drug addicted. In alcoholic anonymous 12 step program that says the addict may be constitutionally incapable of getting well. So don’t waste your time trying to apply any kind of framework as to how he thinks. He is so out of control with his addictions that we need to just mentally shut down and let go and let God because he’s not worth one brain cell, which would be more than he has. It is brain damage. He doesn’t care because he can’t care for anything other than himself

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Penny Pawl's avatar

Maybe it is to pay for his 14 children!!!!!

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Robot Bender's avatar

And counting. I hear he's still looking for incubators, I mean mothers.

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Klare K.'s avatar

Penny and Robot: I like both of your comments, but isn't it all just too disgusting??!!!

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Ruth Sheets's avatar

Ed, the sad part is that corporations go along with the childish bullying as CBS, Columbia, AVC, and other entities have fallen to Trump's whining, bullying, and despicable threats. Why do people respond to such evil? It relaly makes no sense because there are a lot more of us than there are of them.

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Ed Shook's avatar

Ruth we at war and we are going to lose if we don’t do more than fund raise and complain. They are violent greedy criminals

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Lonnie Moore's avatar

"They" are the Definition of "The Seven Sins"...

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Klare K.'s avatar

Lonnie, that's the "Seven Deadly Sins"!!!!

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Lonnie Moore's avatar

Thanks, the question is-

Who are the candidates for the

“Deadly” part?

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Klare K.'s avatar

Trump and Felon Musk, for sure, Peter Thiel, all the Project 2025 creators, Kristi Noem, so-called A.G. LAWLESS Pam Bondi, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, probably Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner . . . Need I go on???

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Penny Pawl's avatar

great comment!!!!!

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Paul Cesmat's avatar

Dr. Reich, if you could comment on the item below?

From the Lever, another substack newsletter, just today.

The Trump administration appears ready to sign an executive order that would allow private equity firms to prey on Americans’ retirement savings. What happens if Wall Street can suddenly tap into the trillions of dollars tucked away in 401(k) accounts?

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Punkette's avatar

Hmmm. 🤔 No wonder DOGE stole all our personal information.

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Paul Cesmat's avatar

yeah that was an obvious no-brainer from the get go

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Miriam Ferfers's avatar

If the order mirrors the 2020 DOL letter but strips fiduciary guardrails, savers could face fee spikes and valuation opacity - while private equity gains a new capital channel.

Without strict disclosure rules and fee caps, 401(k)s risk becoming extraction tools, not retirement assets.

Happy to expand - I've mapped this within broader structural dynamics of privatized governance. More in the drops in my site.

Like here for example:

https://open.substack.com/pub/miriamferfers/p/the-chimera-state-americas-new-operating?

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Victor's avatar

If true, that would be another brazen violation of the law. I don't think investors will like it, so I hope it is true.

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Gina's avatar

Every damned day, this administration gets worse. How much longer can we let them ruin this country after stealing the election?

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Klare K.'s avatar

Gina, like, like, like, like, like!!!

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Catherine Logsdon's avatar

It's past the time he should have been thrown out by the other stockholders. And the car owners should sue him for the diving resale value.

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Shelley Greer's avatar

Excellent question⁉️ Why would one of the world’s richest 🗺️ people need a raise ⁉️

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T.R.'s avatar

I’m so fucking sick of this shit! These assholes will go down. 🤬

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Francis/Clare's avatar

Like maybe that efficient tool the French set up in Le Place de la Concorde.

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stuart burstin's avatar

Remember what happened to the inventor of the death device. The crowd used it on him, Lavoisier and so many others. Do not let vengeance and hate become our leader or we may act like a mob, many people and no brain. It is unclear what is the path to turn this country back to the American Experiment ideal. But vengeance and threats of violence will only lead to evidence that affirms the regimes lever that a return to rational government for the benefit of the people is not what we desire. They are currently trying to make their control of the narrative complete. Do not give them talking points more than they manufacture themselves.

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Francis/Clare's avatar

You're right. I agree. I wasn't serious. If orangino refuses to leave, do you think the military might step in? I wonder what percent support him. They always say that Fox is on in every mess hall.

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stuart burstin's avatar

I think a military intervention would certainly mean the American Experiment has failed. I am amazed that greed has displaced virtue and faction become the lever to power. But my amazement only proves my shallow understanding of man based on my chosen experience and selective understanding of the world, in which mankind is striving for wealth and power not civilization. We have the science and technology to create a world of sufficient living for all and close to utopia for most, yet we let the same tribalism described in the Tower of Babel causes the present to destroy the future of our progeny. I admit to a lack (or perhaps a desire not to )of understanding.

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Louise Purfield-Coak's avatar

I totally agree. Are there any others out there besides us that find this version of America that is MAGA appalling?

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Charles's avatar

Who do get play Madame LaFarge? It seems like there are plenty of candidates. She has to be absolutely cold blooded. As I said, plenty of candidates in Trump world!

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Sarah Rose Johnstone's avatar

I like her role, to knit beside the guillotine as heads roll, and we know the heads we have in mind! The knitting, as I remember it, memorializes those sacrificed; victims of the regime.

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Donna Maurillo's avatar

Oh! Oh! I know how to knit!! And crochet and embroider, too!!

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Sarah Rose Johnstone's avatar

Yes, so do I. Hehehheh. Stitch on, dear lady!

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Louise Purfield-Coak's avatar

Yes! So do I. Doing graphic designs on afghans now. Give me the patterns, and I will take the seat.

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Charles's avatar

Well said, Sarah Rose. Would you like to head up the :"Madame LaFarge Committee"? You seem to have right spirit!

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Francis/Clare's avatar

Madame Defarge. I discovered a famous Marie LaFarge who was convicted of poisoning her husband with arsenic, but after the revolution.

Good question who to play her. Jasmine Crockett has the spirit to bring forward legitimate reasons for rage.

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Donna Maurillo's avatar

Then there's the famous Marie Leveau of New Orleans. The House of Voodoo is named for her because she was a practitioner. Her fame began when her husband and two daughters disappeared without a trace.... never to be found.

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Francis/Clare's avatar

Yikes. Voodoo seems pretty scary.

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Donna Maurillo's avatar

It's a fun place to visit. But yeah about the scary part!

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Sarah Rose Johnstone's avatar

You know, I wonder if Dickens might have known of your poisoner when writing the character. He often based things in his fiction on real life people and events. ??

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Francis/Clare's avatar

Definitely possible as she died in 1852 and Tale was published in1859.

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Sarah Rose Johnstone's avatar

There you go. Intriguing to consider he found inspiration in a poisoner.

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T.R.'s avatar

Lol! Love that. :D

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martin morrison's avatar

Well, Numpty Trumpty loves to play on his Scottish roots. Send the wee laddie hame for his doom. We had a guillotine here in Scotland 250 years earlier: The Maiden. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maiden_(guillotine)

It's on permanent display in the National Museum of Scotland. It doesn't have the elan and flare of its French descendant, a masterpiece to my mind, realpolitik in machine form. It's clumsy, crude and unrefined, so it's clearly just the job for the knobhead.

Next time he's in Scotland, he really must visit the museum for a fully immersive guided tour.

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Francis/Clare's avatar

Haha, that's perfect!

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martin morrison's avatar

We've still got all the best kit here in The Old Country. We've been doing this sort of shit for thousands of years. You think the electric chair is barbaric? It's Little League stuff compared to the richest European traditions.

Obviously, the English turned it into a contest and came up wth this. A bit over the top, but top marks for theatricality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Gibbet

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Francis/Clare's avatar

And it only took 364 years and 100 beheadings to decide beheading was a tad extreme for stealing £10. And you're right, the guillotine was a masterpiece with the notch for the neck and the little basket for the head to fall into.

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martin morrison's avatar

The French and Spanish always had real style. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garrote.

This is why I don't get dewy-eyed with nostalgic yearnings for the past and man's 'proud histories'. We were fucking barbarians for millennia. We were improving, but seem to have gone into reverse.

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Peggy Freeman's avatar

I am with you, T.R.! I am angry, frustrated and beginning to wonder how the hell we can take them down! I was even more furious when I received a damn donation email from democrats that actually blamed me because the Citizens United bill they were trying to pass was stalled because I didn't donate! They are telling me that I am responsible for things not happening because I didn't donate. They said they had begged and pleaded with me, but because I didn't donate the bill didn't go through! Their messaging is so bad. Democrats are wanting to fight back but the only message they are putting out is blaming the members of their party for what has or hasn't happened! I am sick to death of that. I know how hard I have been working. I am not "rolling in dough" like those people at the DNC and members of Congress. Something has got to give soon before a lot of angry people decide they have just plain had enough!

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stuart burstin's avatar

It is like the plastic industry that gives us pollution in manufacturing and product blaming us for not recycling a product that is difficult to impossible to recycle that is polluting in its manufacture. They lie, democrats need a message and messenger before funding. The Trumpian regime is creating a dystopian world with a functioning Ministry of Truth and a cult emotionally melded into his personal. I have only reason to guide me, yet manipulation and emotion have gripped the population. I am at a loss, I hope someone can find the key to open the door to a future where 2025 does not equal 1984.

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Donna Maurillo's avatar

When I get donation requests, I write back and ask what they've done to earn it. Do you want to know how many responses I get??? Really?

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Anna Livia Plurabelle's avatar

I know exactly how many times you’ve heard back! Nada!

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Judi S.'s avatar

Canada is looking mighty good right now🤔

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Rob Johnston's avatar

Always like your level head and comments.

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Peggy Freeman's avatar

Thanks, Rob! Sometimes I feel like my head is going to explode seeing all the wrong that is going on today! I appreciate that you think I have a level head!

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Anna Livia Plurabelle's avatar

From your lips to God’s ears!

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Cathy's avatar

From your lips to a very brave employee’s ears!

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Carl Selfe's avatar

Now is our moment—today take action against this harmful government. They are:

• Covering up a pedophile ring.

• Ignoring court orders.

• Spreading corruption.

The poor, the needy, and children are being abused—by our government. Healthcare, already a broken system, was canceled for 13 million. Take to the streets!

We must protest outright crooks and the pedophiles. They will start shooting us. Untrained ICE agents will shoot us. Protest until we go down or we oust these tyrants.

I made 54 protest signs to aid protest groups. I will make many more to share. You will see something different in these signs! Help yourself to this second batch, and share them as far as you can.

https://hotbuttons.substack.com/p/more-free-protest-signs?r=3m1bs

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Dan Beach's avatar

And Lying. Always lying.

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Marie H Jones's avatar

I hate that we the people have no say . We protest, call our elected officials. We need to be able to kick these jerks out of office. We are a population of 300 million compared to about 3 million when this country came into existence. If the government was a company or regular business then to top people would be forced out. We cannot wait till 2026. I admire the democrats from Texas, but it's a freaking shame they have to leave the state . The people don't want the redistricting but are those that ate elected listening nope. Let the people decide

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Louise Purfield-Coak's avatar

Republicans can't allow the people to decide, they know that they will loose. To stop the loss is what Trump has called the illegal redistricting for. Kudos to Gov Newsom, Gov Pritzger (sp?) and Gov Hocol for retaliating in kind.

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Jamae's avatar

Professor, have you seen Musk latest plan to dig an underground tunnel in Nashville that would end at the airport? He’s already crapping on Memphis with his data center. MAGA in Tennessee have given him carte blanche.

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Donna Maurillo's avatar

We got rid of him in California. Then he went to Texas and they were jumping up and down with glee!!! Claimed they punked California. Then he left them almost immediately and went to Tennessee.

We were so glad when he left here. He squeezed local communities for tax incentives (which did nothing to help the local people), he mistreated his employees, and he said California never gave him enough. When Texas got him, we cheered. Bye, Felicia!

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Chris Dacus's avatar

Note that this stupid idea isn't even to 'help' residents. It will be a Tesla taxi service (one lane only) and nobody else can use it. No resident was asked about it, Neither was the mayor. Guess what? The horrible governor Bill Lee just sees this as another way to make money for himself. It will NOT help Nashville residents at all.

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Jamae's avatar

Agree!

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James Sexton's avatar

I worked for a company that generated over $500 million in annual profits, with more than 50% of that amount paid as bonuses to approximately 20 executives. And this was a relatively small proportion of bonuses paid compared to some of the executive salaries now. Executive pay is way out of hand in this country, and this is why there are so many bankruptcies.

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Victor's avatar

Yes, and this another reason why we need a windfall profits tax. With some exceptions, it would apply to CEO income such as in this case.

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Carlprn's avatar

BAN BILLIONAIRES! Tax anything over $500 million at 98% and estate inheritance tax at 99% for anything over $ 1 million.

Hello universal health care, free quality education, and national debt erased in 3 years!

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Louise Purfield-Coak's avatar

The problem with that is the value of family farm land. You would be conviscating too many family farms at a cap of 1 million. Learning to farm efficiently and sustainably, and building soil takes time. You would loose generational knowledge!

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Pu-Chin Hsueh Waide's avatar

I just do not understand the logic, if any, of all this. What’s happening to our integrity and fairness and generosity and looking out for the weak and dispossessed? - the great American Dream of our world. Boggles my mind.

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Tina Baldwin's avatar

It’s all about power and control now -money is almost obsolete in the billionaire world. They do everything with credit and manipulation and just use money to employ some of us.

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Laura Ouimet's avatar

You said it right in your first sentence.

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Ed Shook's avatar

You’re stuck on rules like most decent folks. Think outside the box

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Ed Shook's avatar

Too many innocent minds in this country. The richest man in the world by far wants more money. Think about that mindset. He can’t spend anywhere near what he has accumulated. It’s pure acting out an addiction. He’s also drug addicted. In alcoholic anonymous 12 step program that says the addict may be constitutionally incapable of getting well. So don’t waste your time trying to apply any kind of framework as to how he thinks. He is so out of control with his addictions that we need to just mentally shut down and let and let God because he’s not worth one brain cell, which would be more than he has. It is brain damage. He doesn’t care because he can’t care for anything other than himself

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Tracey Queripel's avatar

We do not need to mentally shut down and let God. We need to find a way to get rid of this piece of shit, legally, of course. He probably doesn’t want to heal from his addictions, but we shouldn’t have to be sucking up the damage he does because of them. He needs to be stopped.

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Ed Shook's avatar

Agreed.

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Louise Purfield-Coak's avatar

Take away his citizenship. Musk is a migrant! South Africa and all the garbage philosophy that comes from Apartheid is lodged in his own mind. We don't need his type of flotsam and jetsom in our country. The same can be said of Peter Thiel!

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Michael N.'s avatar

Without countervailing power, there's nothing stopping the rich and powerful from further enriching each other at everyone else's expense. If you're not sitting at the table, you're likely on the menu...

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Louise Purfield-Coak's avatar

Government is the countervailing force. That is why the Billionaire Class is so intent on destroying it!

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Michael Wolk's avatar

All our bitching has done absolutely nothing. A revolution or dissolution is coming. We’ve seen that our greed and corruption will be our ruin as a nation. Look at Texas today!! For Gods sake!! Only a matter of time.

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Megan Rothery's avatar

Use/share this spreadsheet (bit.ly/Goodtrouble) as a resource to call/email/write members of Congress, the Cabinet and news organizations. Reach out to those in your own state, and those in a committee that fits your topic. Call. Write. Email. Protest. Unrelentingly. We deserve better ❤️‍🩹🤍💙

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